Sun Roof Revisited

GPD

Greg
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Issue relates to E3 automatic sunroof. When I bought my Bavaria in November of 2020, the sun roof did not work and had to be closed manually. When it was closed, the driver side rear corner would not rise. Some time ago, I pulled it all apart and found the cables were shot. The motor seemed to work fine. Purchased new cables. The passenger side cable had been “modified” and I had to sand down some solder bumps. I hooked up the new cables after cleaning out the runners and re-felting and resealing the sunroof. The sun roof ran perfectly ... till it didn’t. It died so I had to pull it apart again. When I did, the Bowden cable had snapped. So I pulled the motor and replaced the Bowden cable. I put everything back together again and for a few runs it was perfect. Now the driver side back corner is again failing to rise.

Motor runs fine.
Cables seem to work fine but possibly more resistance on the passenger side.
Polyethlene like triangular wedges are intact

When I ran the motor before re-attaching the sun roof, the driver side cable would not pop up when it hit the “bump”, as it did when I first replaced the cables. No idea why as it was just the cables being run by the motor without a load.

Cannot thank Wladek, Barry G and Jefflit enough for their help on this misadventure.

Appreciate thoughts and would also appreciate anyone who can remember the post someone made of a video of picking up their E9 after the sun roof rebuild, only to have the driver side back corner not rise. Poster was walking around the car video taping the car as he picked it up. I figure he has the answer.
 

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bavbob

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One thing not mentioned is the criscross tubing that each cable recedes into. It needs to be cleaned and lubricated. Also make sure this is aligned properly, you can see the tube at the end of each sunroof track. It is help by a single screw on each side. If the tube is tweeked even a bit, it will offer resistance to cable retraction. There are also ""L" brackets suspended from the roof that the sunroof retracts into, these can rust and get dirty and also add resistance.

Basically, your story seems to be one of increased resistance to get the sunroof to move, my comments are based on the above.
 

GPD

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So I re-read all the sunroof posts - least those I could find - and some extra homework from Wladek on cleaning.
I removed the liner and re-ran the sun roof and it ran fine. When I re-attached the liner, it would not “rise”. If I run the sun roof with the car on, and the liner on, it works fine. I have suspected for some time I have a short that slowly drains my battery. Is this sufficient enough to stop or does my fellow Bruin fan still feel I need to pull out the dreaded tubing. Am I under powered or suffering from too much resistance? Wes from down under had already posited the question of insufficient power but concluded in the end that was not the issue I think.
 

bavbob

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The only other thing is that the cables are symmetric, meaning identical in position. If one runs its course to close and the other is off by a hair, it wont complete the run on that side. Lower the motor/gear assembly so you just see a hole and the two cables crossing. Have the roof closed. Have someone push up on the side that won't rise and you pull the cable more taught. I think it may just retract by a notch but that's all it takes.
 
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pickman

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I found a similar issue recently per the below photo the slide bar that rotates. If I included the straight pin (shown in #1) under this slide lock my roof would not post up in the rear. When I left this outside the slide lock it properly functioned and closed.
1627905958205.png
 

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